A Sticky Trigger E3 2017 Retrospective

E3 has come to its final day and the main presentations from the biggest publishers and console makers in the business have already wrapped up. Complete with awkward YouTuber endorsements, dancing bears, Peruvian flute band, and genuine tears, this year’s conference has certainly been one of much contention.

Because of this, the Sticky Trigger staff have banded together to give some of our insights on what we feel went down at E3 2017.

While this E3 didn’t really hold any massive surprises or exciting reveals, what really grabbed me as a fanboy was the Shadow of the Collusus remake/remaster. The original still holds up as a beautiful title to play through and I don’t think I can even fathom how awestruck I’m going to be playing through it in all new reworked visuals and hi fidelity sound. I also have a small hope that Ueda is working on the project and may add some of additional unfinished Collosi, deeper lore, and easter eggs that were rumoured lost throughout the original.

Without a doubt, the largest let down for me besides EA and Microsoft’s mostly lackluster presentations is Insomniac’s Spider-Man. A game that really got me on the hype train last year only to seem really quite stale in gameplay. Near endless Quick Time Events (QTEs), momentumless web swinging, and what seemed to be a completely linear game. Sure, they might have chosen a poor part of the game to present but Insomniac are such good developers usually that seeing this QTE heavy walkthrough is quite off-putting.

This E3 started off particularly lackluster with EA’s hamfisted attempts at proving they’re totally hip to the cool kids. The onslaught of cringe attempts at relating whatever the hell pseudo-celebrity they could find to their games delivered to us by the human personification of Handsom Jack just positioned me not to believe a word of what the games were promising and so even if they did have one or two interesting offerings my hype train remains parked in the station.

That being said I saw glimmers of light throughout the conference. I’m ridiculously excited for a sequel to Ori and the Blind Forest, as well as original Xbox backwards compatibility from Microsoft. Bethesda are bringing literally everything to VR whether we like it or not and Sony are still bringing us Spider-Man, I guess.

It’s not uncommon for game culture to seep into the way we view E3 and so there’s always talk of winners and losers and I was almost ready to give the crown to Ubisoft. The French company owns shares on my soul with an ancient Egypt Assassin’s Creed and I even joined Michel Ancel in shedding a tear after the beautiful Beyond Good and Evil 2 trailer.

Their Rabbids and Mario game looks like it’s going to be more fun than it has any right to be, however, in that I think the title goes to Nintendo. A 25-minute presentation purely focussing on games to come including just letting us know that a new Pokémon RPG and Metroid are in the works has put my new favourite console manufacturer in a fine position and I’m very excited for the next few years on the Switch.

Call me crazy, but I still look forward to E3 each and every year, though this year I simply didn’t have the time to host my usual caffeine-fueled viewing party. E3 2017 saw the event at its absolute peak for cringe-inducing presentations, though there were also some truly moving presentations as well. We saw Sony give the PlayStation VR a massive push, and while I’m a proud PSVR addict I can’t help but feel that the focus on PSVR would only disappoint hardcore Sony fans. Say what you want, but some of the games looked particularly interesting, such as Supermassive Games’ The Inpatient and Bravo Team.

Microsoft announcing that Xbox Original games would be compatible with the Xbox One still managed to surprise me, considering how badly backwards-compatibility on the Xbox 360 was handled. I’m expecting a much smaller library of playable games, and I hope Microsoft actually give this idea the support it needs.

EA’s A Way Out from the developer of Two Brothers was a pleasant surprise, and the focus on split-screen co-op is both gutsy and something I am in full favour of. This is a game that looks to truly embrace couch gaming, where communication is essential and heightens the experience for both players. I honestly hope this game does well and brings back meaningful split-screen gaming.

Other highlights include Monster HunterWorld bringing the series to Xbox One and PlayStation, as Super Mario and Ubisoft’s Rabbids colliding in their own game. Mario and Rabbids looks damn fun, and I had no idea it was the game I always wanted.

Activision’s Call of DutyWWII multiplayer reveal seemed to somehow be the same Call of Duty that fans have grown sick of these past years, despite the appearance of the publisher looking to turn that around with a return to World War II. Gameplay-wise, we still saw a focus on Team Deathmatch as well as small teams fighting over small maps. It was said years ago that Call of Duty would begin to move away from Team Deathmatch, yet here we are, rehashing stale ideas with the illusion of reinvention.

I would be remiss to not mention Devolver Digital and their amazing E3 presentation. A bizarre parody of actual E3 presentations, Devolver bragged about their presentation arousing gamers and having more ways to take their money than ever before. At a time where a lot of companies in the industry are trying to hook players in with talks of Early Access and betas, pre-orders and season passes, Devolver talked about ‘Earliest Access’ – the ability to fully purchase games as soon as they’re even conceived. There was cussing, severed limbs and exploding heads and believe it or not, it was the smartest presentation E3 had to offer. Kudos to Devolver Digital and their punk-rock, no-shits-given publishing attitude.

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